News & Impact

Stay updated with JFCS activities in the community.

Our Holiday Toy Drive was an incredible success and we couldn’t have done it without the many generous donations by our community members!
You made the holiday so much brighter for children impacted by the North Bay fires and low-income families throughout the Bay Area.The numbers:700 toys were collected and distributed, including dolls, Legos, art supplies, over a dozen youth bicycles, 20 scooters, gift certificates, puzzles, athletic equipment, and more!
178 children and youth throughout the Bay Area received gifts.
500 rolls of wrapping paper were donated to make each gift special.Thank you again to everyone who… Read More

The Bay Area is often described as a foodie’s paradise—but given the region’s high cost of living, many people from all walks of life find themselves unable to afford all the food they need. In San Francisco alone an estimated 1 in 4 people experience hunger. JFCS’ Nutrition Program collects nearly seven tons of food each fall through the High Holiday Food Drive, a critical community effort that ensures that our five regional pantries have basic food items stocked on the shelves all year long.Free, Healthy Groceries a Lifesaver for Fixed-Income Clients
Linda, 76, a retired teacher’s aide living… Read More

Form a new friendship with a Russian-speaking senior who is eagerly awaiting your visit in San Francisco!
All it takes is one hour per week for conversation, short walks, and other enjoyable activities. Not only will it brighten the senior’s life, it will make you feel great, too!
Meet the Clients
Igor*, a lively conversationalist, is nearly 90 years old and has difficulty seeing and hearing. He is however sharp as a tack and very engaged with life and its existential questions. Because of the limitations of his eyesight and hearing, he has limited ability to be out and about… Read More

Jewish identity is changing in America, and that’s especially true for many Bay Area Jews in their 20s, 30s and early 40s, some of whom are recent transplants with busy careers.
So how are these millennials finding meaning in being Jewish today? JFCS has four different programs that answer this very question.Young Professional Community Connection: Behind the Scenes
Amanda Merriweather, a technology company recruiter in her twenties, volunteers every month through JFCS’ Young Professional Community Connection.
“For me, the community around the culture is how I connect with Judaism,” says Amanda. “The opportunity to give back with like-minded… Read More

J Weekly

By Rob Gloster

Berta Kohut endured more than 1,000 days at Auschwitz. She suffered through transfers to Ravensbruck concentration camp and the Birkenau death camp.

Having somehow survived and started a family back in her native Czechoslovakia, the last thing she wanted to do was tell her two sons about those horrors. But when her seven grandchildren were old enough to understand, she shared her Holocaust nightmares.

“When I was growing up, it was a taboo subject in our family. My father protected her from talking about it,” said her son, Tom Areton. “It’s easier for her to talk to the grandchildren.”

For many grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, their bonds with saba and savta are based in part on those shared accounts — the same ones that were too raw for the survivors to tell their own children. The passage of time, and the realization that their stories might die with them, often made it easier for them to open up as they aged.

The grandkids, recognizing that special relationship and wanting to share such stories with their peers, have in several large U.S. cities created 3G groups — so named because they’re the third generation. In San Francisco, 3gSF was created in 2013 through the Holocaust Center at Jewish Family and Children’s Services.